Historical Events on March 24

  • 1765: The Quartering Act is passed by Great Britain. This act requires people who live in the 13 Colonies to house British troops as needed.
  • 1829: The U.K Parliament passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. This act allows Catholics to openly serve in Parliament.
  • 1832: Mormon leader Joseph Smith is beat, tarred and feather by a group of men in Hiram, Ohio.
  • 1854: Venezuela abolishes slavery.
  • 1878: The HMS Eurydice sinks. More than 300 people are killed.
  • 1882: The discover of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis – Mycobacterium tuberculosis – is announced by Robert Koch.
  • 1896: The first radio signal transmission in human history occurs on this day by A.S Popov.
  • 1944: At the Ardeatine Massacre, 335 Italian civilians are killed by German forces in Rome.
  • 1944: 76 Allied POWs start breaking out of German Prisoner Camp Stalag Luft III during World War II. This event would later be dramatized by the movie “The Great Escape.”
  • 1958: Elvis Presley is drafted into the United States Army.
  • 1989: The Exxon Valdez spills over two hundred and forty thousand barrels of crude oil in Prince William Sound in the state of Alaska.
  • 1993: The Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is discovered on this day.
  • 1998: 10 people are wounded and 5 are killed when teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas are fired upon.
  • 1998: Two hundred and fifty people are killed and another three thousand are injured when a tornado touches down in Dantan, India.

Famous Birthdays on March 24

  • Hungarian-Jewish magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini is born in 1874.
  • Dutch-American chemist, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, Peter Debye is born in 1884.
  • American actor, screenwriter and director, Roscoe Arbuckle is born in 1887.
  • American bank robber, Clyde Barrow is born in 1909.
  • American animator, producer and co-found of Hanna Barbera, Joseph Barbera is born in 1911.
  • American author Mary Stolz is born in 1920.
  • American actor Murray Hamilton is born in 1923.
  • American actor Norman Fell is born in 1924.
  • American actor Steve McQueen is born in 1930.
  • English-American model and actress, Kelly LeBrock is born in 1960.
  • German singer-songwriter Nena is born in 1960.
  • American actor Jim Parsons is born in 1973.
  • American football player Peyton Manning is born in 1976.
  • American actress Jessica Chastain is born in 1977.